The convergence of computers, voice communications, and the Internet has revolutionized the manner and speed by which people are able to communicate. People today have the capacity to work and collaborate using a variety of electronic devices and applications. However, as the number of devices and applications a person typically uses for collaboration has increased, so has the possibility that a person working within a given collaborative application will wish to switch modes of communication from text based to actual voice conversation. For example, a user working in an email, social software, or sales force automation (SFA) application upon reading new information about a topic, person, or event may wish to transition from consuming information or text communication to a voice call with another individual or individuals to take action related to that content or text communication.
In the prior art, the user must physically locate his phone and/or manually initiate the call provided there is an existing integration between that application and the PBX or via peer-to-peer VoIP calling infrastructure. For many applications this simply does not exist leaving the user to manually find, pickup a phone, and initiate calling which requires the user to shift their attention away from the context and application they were working in to continue the workflow, by switching to another voice-related application or to another device altogether. This process is inconvenient, disruptive to attention focus, and time consuming in many instances. As a result, there is a need for improved methods and apparatuses for initiating telephony calls.